Does maritime law walk alone?

By José M. Alcántara

“My students at the University of Panama asked me, how it can be that Maritime Conventions of 1910 and 1924 stay alive in the year 2013 without regard of the actual shipping framework of today? Shipping business does not work by the law but by the hour. The law is there for dealing with the situation when anything goes wrong. Thence, Maritime Law is a science made by lawyers and mostly for lawyers, though hardly recognized to be so. New casualties will occur, further crises in ship finance will add to the present ones, higher costs will arise through litigation, a lot of more liabilities shall be sought, State interventions will increase, and greater insurance coverage will be arranged and sold. In the meantime lawyers will yet irrespectively fight their cases throughout and obtain Court decisions which very often are not understood by their Clients and have little connection with the real facts of the relevant trade.”

Copyright 2018 - elDial.com - editorial albrematica - Tucumán 1440 (1050) - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires - Argentina

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Términos mencionados en esta doctrina: maritime, conventions, shipping.